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This morning I got set up for the NSA #65 show in Nailsea, this evening I looked around the venue for the BS9 art trail at Elmlea school and lunchtime I found out I’ve had a painting selected for the New English Art Club for the first time EVER.

Come and celebrate the post hump 2018 with me at the private view of the NSA exhibition #65 on Friday (13th April). Ignore the fact it’s Friday the 13th and get out from under your duvet, it’s all downhill from here, see you there.

My wall at the NSA #65 show

I’m particularly excited about finally getting a piece into the NEAC show at the Mall Galleries. One of the first “proper” artist’s I met was the marvellous Dawn Sidoli NEAC RWA who has always been overwhelmingly supportive of my efforts over quite a large number of years of no NEAC luck, so I’m relieved to feel I’ve rewarded her faith.

To quote from the press release, ahem…

“Work by a local artist has been selected from over 1,600 entries to appear alongside paintings by some of Britain’s leading figurative artists. The New English Art Club’s annual exhibition is on display at Mall Galleries in central London between 15 and 23 June 2018.

Continuing to build on its tradition of painting and drawing from observation, the New English is a vibrant and diverse group of visual artists whose work is highly collectible and widely admired.

Its Annual Exhibition is a showcase for members and gives aspiring artists an opportunity to exhibit alongside some of the best figurative artists working today in painting, drawing and printmaking.

Many diverse styles of art have developed since its founding in 1886, adding richness and variety. The New English aims to foster excellence in all its activities and continues to assist and encourage the art of painting to develop even more expressive possibilities.”

Some of the “richness and variety” in my selected work was added by it being blown off the easel and rolling down the slope leaving all sorts of exciting vertical marks which I embraced.

The show in Bath is still on until Mid-May, get along if you can, it’s a cracker.

Well relatively far anyhow. Some of my work will be showing with Farmer Fine Arts at the Cambridge art fair this coming weekend. Andrew Farmer is a fine and ridiculously prolific painter himself and he invited me to exhibit with his gallery along with some real up and coming painting talent. Take a look at his site and even better if you can make to that part of the country take a look at the fair. Look out especially for Tom Stevenson and Maria Rose who are ones to watch for the future. I really ought to get some painting swaps sorted while I still can!

As well as some larger work I’ve packaged up some of my life class studies for the fair too.

HJ Ink and Brush

Closer to home I’ll be exhibiting with the Portishead Arts painters at the Portishead Lido Cafe again at the end of this month.

I’ll be showing some dinky little ship paintings that I’ve enjoyed creating over the last few weeks along with some recent plein air painting work fresh off the easel, yesterday in fact. I’m really enjoying this low winter sun.

P.s. if anyone has the Sky Arts channel then you might be able to spot me in the background of the recent episode of Landscape Artist of the Year. It was on last week but it should be on catch up. I’ve not seen it but I’ve seen some shared screen shots. I’m the one wearing an apron that looks like it’s been involved in some kind of dirty protest.

I was one of 50 wildcard entries painting Worm’s Head on the Gower, this was in addition to the 6 artists selected for that heat. It was a really enjoyable experience being in a group of artists who were all excited to be there. It was great to meet so many artists face to face and I hope our paths will keep on crossing. As a bonus we were able to park up the campervan in the crew field which had a spectacular view of Worm’s Head.

It was really interesting to see the programme being made and it was great to meet *spoiler alert* the heat winner Alice Boggis-Rolfe Art who I’ve followed on social media for a few years and knew my work too. But even better I got to speak to and shake the hand of Tai-Shen Schierenberg, one of the judges, I love his work. Unfortunately my painting didn’t work out so well, my foreground turned to non drying gravy, I painted over some of the brown mess when I got home, too late for the programme though. There’s always next year…

I’ll be opening my studio for North Somerset arts week again 11.00am to 6.00pm over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend (including BH Monday) and the following weekend, 29, 30 April, 1,6,7 May.

Hopefully there is something for everyone to enjoy, come along to browse, chat, listen, eat, drink or explore…

As in previous year’s Black Nore lighthouse will be open for visitors to climb inside during the afternoon while I’m open. This is accessible via the garden and I’ll be selling tea and cakes in support of its upkeep.

I’ll have many new plein air oil paintings of the local area and from further afield on show for the first time as well as a new studio paintings. Much of my new work is exploring the fast changing light at dawn and dusk.
I’ll also be showing some examples of my portraiture including a painting of my son that was recently preselected for the Royal Portrait Society show.

Last Light, Black Nore

Lois Pryce (no relation) will be exhibiting with me for the first time. Lois paints local scenes, still lives and life studies in a bold expressive style that I hope you will enjoy.

Also I’ll have Raku pottery by Brian and “Nibs” Fowler, they’ll be exhibiting a range of vessels, bowls and figures that show this exciting medium off to the maximum. If you’ve never seen the Raku process before it’s fiery and unpredictable, there will be a couple of Raku burnings in the garden on the final Sunday when you’ll have an opportunity to scrub off the carbon yourself and reveal what the process has created.

Raku Pot, Brian Fowler

Avonmouth, Lois Pryce

Finally I’ll be showcasing some estuary soundscapes by a local producer Dave Howell to add to the atmosphere. When that’s not on I’ll be playing a bit of vinyl on my turntable, or LPs if you are my age.

I’m exhibiting work at the Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre with Clifton Arts Club, it’s a great space and it runs until Sunday the 1st of April. I’ll be there Sunday afternoon if you want to say hi, it’s open from 10 to 5pm and is free.

Winter Mizzle, Suspension Bridge

Za Za Bazaar

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I have been out painting over the Winter and to prove it I’ve just updated my Landscape gallery, take a look here. I’ve also broken it down by area, Wales, West etc. Any comments welcome, I’ll be updating the lifeless and portrait galleries in the next few days too.

I’ve got lots of new work to show at the North Somerset Arts week which is coming up in the next month. The paper brochure is already out and it should be downloadable from the NSA site shortly. I am exhibiting from my home “studio” in Portishead again on the Sat 29th, 30th April, 1st May (Bank how Monday) and the following weekend 6th, 7th May. I’m easy to find as I’m last in the brochure! I’ll be exhibiting with painter Lois Pryce and Brian Fowler who creates beautiful raku and pit fired pottery, More news on this shortly.

I’m very proud to share that I’ve had a painting selected for the ING Discerning Eye exhibition in London for the third year in succession. My selected work is an oil painting of a peat black ploughed field from a weekend on the Somerset Levels in the Spring.

The Discerning Eye annual exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. This gives the impression of six individually curated exhibitions with separate personalities. They always have a “celebrity” collector, this year it is Celia Imrie. It’s alway interesting to see who has picked your work and how it fits in on their wall.

It was originally supported by the late Brian Sewell who thought that small works were often overlooked in the art market.

Here is this years work along with my previous submissions and private view photos. (Note to self, work harder to avoid appalling glare in photos!)

The 2016 Discerning Eye Exhibition will be open from Thursday 17 November until Sunday 27 November, between 10am and 5pm daily, at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1, just to be clear that I’m not talking about a Bristol shopping centre. Admission will be free and all the works will be for sale.

I can reveal that the Portishead Arts group are running another pop up show at the Portishead Lido cafe for three days in November , Friday 25th, Sat 26th and Sun 27th, 10am – 5.30pm, with a late night opening with a bar on the Friday until 9pm.

I’ll be displaying a wider range of work than last time including some work from Cornwall and the Peak District so if you didn’t make it last time or want to see some paintings from further afield come along.

Here’s a little plein air (well inside the cafe) painting I completed during an afternoon cake induced lull. If you look closely you’ll see it’s a drier, more blocky technique than usual. This was mainly due to it being solvent free to allow the visitors to enjoy their triple decker coffee and walnut sponge without being in a turps haze. I’ll take low odour solvents next time!

I’m excited to be taking part in the inaugural show of a new groups of artists and painters in Portishead that go under the banner Portishead Arts. We have awebsite where you can find details of the other artists involved.

There’ll be a great range of work on show including painting, photography, jewellery and illustration so come along and enjoy a slice of cake and perhaps even have a dip in the Lido.

The show will be on for over a week from Thurs 22nd to Friday 30th of September the lido is open 9.30 to 6.30 every day (later on Monday mornings I think), I’m planning on stewarding on both the Fridays, I might take my painting kit along to paint the estuary in any quiet periods, so come and say hello.

For this show I’m focussing on local scenes, pretty much all painted within a mile of the Lido. My painting of the lido is the top right image on the flyer above.

Here’s a recent one painted after a last minute decision to walk down and catch the last light at Black Nore lighthouse. I’m so pleased I did, once again I was painting over a failed painting so it was doubly therapeutic, I’m so lucky to have this on my doorstep.

Last Light Black Nore 10 x 12 inches

As well as these outdoor paintings I’ll have a couple of larger works that were painted back in the studio, such as Winter Wave.

Ian Price Winter Wave 24 x 24 inches

The Autumn is always an exciting period with so many shows on, I’m lucky enough to have had a painting selected for the ING Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London which is coming up in November. More news in the next post!